21 February 2005 -- The European Union today urged authorities in Serbia and the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo to resume contacts aimed at improving relations.

Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, said that without dialogue it would be difficult to hold negotiations later this year on the province's future. He spoke after EU foreign ministers held talks in Brussels on Kosovo.

In a statement, EU foreign ministers said there would be "no return to the situation before 1999."

Kosovo officially remains part of Serbia and Montenegro. It has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 following a three-month NATO bombing campaign to end a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on independence. The province's Serbian minority is demanding that Kosovo remain part of Serbia and Montenegro, the successor state of the former Yugoslavia.